


Making Time

by snowshus



Category: Loki: Agent of Asgard
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Incursions (Marvel), Missing Scene, Temporary Character Death, the end of the all worlds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21762862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/pseuds/snowshus
Summary: At the end of all things, Loki finds the time to say goodbye.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Making Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Kings_Scribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Kings_Scribe/gifts).



Once upon a time. It's a good beginning: sets the tone, sets the stage, draws in the audience. It's not a traditional opening for a Norse saga but this is not really a saga, it's just a little aside. A small moment stolen by the God of Stories to do a thing that mattered. Not in the grand scheme of things, not the arch of the overall narrative, just to him, because sometimes the really important things are not the things that move the world. So this story should not have the opening of a grand saga. It should have a beginning meant for the smaller things, the things that remind us of family and childhood and home. A beginning like once upon a time. So let’s begin.

They are at the end of all things and Loki is burning, a fire that is both a metaphor and very very real. It burns with the heat of betrayal and hope, with needs and wants and an anger that feeds itself and will never burn itself out. It is a fire that can drive him. A fire that could fuel a millennia of story for Loki, the God of Evil. It is a fire that could consume him and destroy all that was and all that will be: a fire that could end the story of Loki. But a fire that is also a metaphor can stand for a lot of things. It can be anger, but it can also be love. It can destroy but it can also cleanse. It can be the end or the rebirth. Fire comes with so many choices.

When he leaves the fire he carries only three things with him. The first thing was his choice.

The Odinson prepares for battle. Thor, the unworthy, Thor, the warrior-born, goes one last time to a great battle to win back himself, to win back his name. Very soon Odinson will step through the door to face down the God’s Gods. He will stand before the Ivory Kings, there at the edge of the universe and at the end of all things. His death is inevitable. This is the death of everything and gods are no exception.

There is time in the middle. There is this tiny moment nestled between leaving the fire and entering the door, it’s barely enough to do anything of significance but it’s enough to take care of the second thing Loki took from the fire.

"You look different again," Thor greets him coldly from his perch atop the mountain looking down on the Savage Land: a pocket of life stolen where no life should have survived. A fitting place to begin the last attempt to steal life from the end of death. "Did you kill the one before you, too?"

"Yes and no." Loki sits beside him curling his bare feet under his knees.

"Never a straight answer with you." Thor takes a drink from the flask at his hip.

"The last version you knew chose death rather than his destiny, and in the choosing escaped both their nets. He died, but I am still him."

"Then you know I want nothing to do with you, murderer" Thor replied.

"My memory is a little fuzzy, I did die after all."

Thor's mouth twitches as he pushes down the urge to smile. Loki, with the silver tongue, could always coax that forgiveness out of him. He could talk around and through a thing until Thor forgot his anger and Loki’s latest betrayal. That was the old way, the way of Loki, God of Lies. Loki is becoming something new, at least he’s trying. He is the God of Stories. And stories are truths beyond facts. He is not here to lie, he is here to share the story.

"He, and I, we did not mean to kill them, your second brother or the third. I, and he, didn’t really exist yet to make those choices. We wanted to be made, though. As much as we were capable of wanting things without actually having an existence. We couldn’t have stopped what happened, we couldn’t have saved them but we did kill them. And I'm sorry. I am sorry for the act, and I am sorry to have taken them from you. But I am not sorry to exist."

Thor does not look at him, but his voice is tight and it catches on the tears he will not shed. "Loki, actually taking responsibility, the world must truly be ending."

"It is," Loki affirms. "There will be no more time after this. We will never be these selves again and I may never have another chance."

"Another chance for what, Brother? One last betrayal, should we end as we began?" Thor asks with a wry smile.

"No, to say I love you." Loki answers evenly, "You are my brother and I love you."

"You are changed," Thor says looking over at Loki for the first time.

"I am. I am no longer Loki, God of Lies and Evil. That person burned in the fire." Loki cups his hands and a small flame lights between his palms. "I thought I could trick the world into forgetting who I was. I thought I could erase that person and their sins and that would be the same as redemption, as forgiveness. I thought I could become someone wholly new. The only person who fell for that lie was myself."

"Than what is your scheme now?" Thor asks.

"To be better. Not for your acceptance or forgiveness. For me." Loki says and the fire diminishes and dies.

"You would have had it, eventually." Thor admits. "I always forgive you, I always will."

"I know, but I can't change for you. That's not a strong enough foundation. I would live in your box, changing only at the whims of your perception of me. It is not about forgiveness anymore, or acceptance. Somethings cannot be forgiven and acceptance is too capricious to rely on. It's not about being someone different. It’s about becoming the best version of myself, because being better is the right thing to do, and I want to do it."

"That is a good scheme, I approve, though I suppose you do not need it." Thor finally smiles at him.

"I appreciate it, nonetheless." Loki smiles back. "When I tell the story of your death in that place beyond all things where you are going. I will make it very exciting. I will make it a story people remember and repeat. The glorious death of Thor Odinson. I will give you life beyond your death. I promise."

"You are so sure of my death than?"

"We are all dying. The whole of creation is dying." Loki sweeps his arms out encompassing all the magnificent impossible creatures below them and then drops his hands. "And your plan is to hit the problem with a hammer. Yes, I am sure of your death."

"I suppose you have a secret way out, some scheme to save yourself." Thor asks.

"Perhaps," Loki admits with a nod and a smile. "I'm still working on the details."

"You are like a cockroach sometimes," Thor says swinging a heavy arm across Loki's shoulder and pulling him in. "Survive for all of us than. I will attempt to beat the problem with a hammer."

"You should. We should all die as ourselves. You - the warrior - you should go fighting. I - the trickster, the storyteller, the cockroach - I will die scheming for one more day."

"You will not die," Thor says. "You are too clever for that."

“I appreciate your faith.”

“For you, I will always have faith,” Thor says giving Loki’s shoulders a firm squeeze. They stay like that for a moment, looking out at the world below and small mortals scurrying back and forth.

"I have to go," Loki reluctantly pulls away, standing up. "I have your stories. I will keep them safe and when there is a place for it, I will give you life again. But I have one more story to collect before this is over, and I don't have much time."

"Is she necessary for your final scheme?" Thor asks.

"No, I just want to save her."

Thor nods and stands, pulling Loki into a bone crushing hug. "Goodbye Brother, I love you too. I always have. And I will see you again, I swear it."

Loki hold him back. "Until we meet again," he says before stepping back and into Verity's apartment. The trip is just one step but it lasts eight months, time and magic are funny that way. He has to work quickly if he wants to save the third thing he took from the fire.


End file.
